I was on the Jegs' website yesterday and noticed that their options to look at parts by year has been amended to a cut off of 1974, I thought that was an odd coincidence.

What I don't get is, based on my understanding of the RPM act, you can modify a production vehicle to be a race car. I've seen plenty of S10's and 80-90's Camaros at the track over the years. How could Hooker or whomever be stopped by the EPA from making headers for those cars, since they can be modified to be race cars under current laws? As long as these companies state the intended purpose of the products, wouldn't it be on the purchaser if they choose to use the parts for something that is illegal?

I wish it was true.

As of the end of December 2022, the RPM Act still has not passed. Closer, but still not a law. Richard Petty met personally with key lawmakers, and Anton Brown testified.

With the Dems more interested in January 6, and the Rep more interested in stopping Biden, I am not sure what will get accomplished in this Congress.

I have signed the SEMA petition several times over the last few years. I get the usual political responses from the usual Dem politicians, and semi-hopeful responses from my Rep congressional representatives.

Keep hoping for the best, but it seems the EPA is just moving forward in ruining our hobby.

John

Thanks for clarifying!

A quick look at Dougs, Hedman, and JBA shows no obvious changes on the products I can recall.

Being late model focused I'd think JBA would show most of their product line completely gone, but can't find any big changes.

Taking a wild guess it was probably a Sentinel Capital Partners (Holley Ownership) cya thing rather than The Man Keeping Them Down.

In the same breath I'll say Hedman's cataloging is super outdated, they still show F body headers not interchanging to M body
and things like that. Not showing vehicle coverage in your marketing is lost sales.

Because the EPA edict now has been changed so that it is illegal to sell parts that can effect emissions, regardless of their intended purpose.

Yep, I've been catching up on things this afternoon, just wasn't aware of some of the more recent events.

That same user (skinnyZ) as linked in the OPs first post, posted this on a 3rd gen F-body forum also, which I believe was the focus (by platform) of his post. Removed were long tube, true dual exhaust headers and supporting system components for '82-'92 F-bodies. These parts were NEVER EPA or CARB compliant, and were always labeled as For Off Road Use Only. These cars never came with true dual exhaust, so it was a configuration that was never emissions certified.

I've seen this topic many places now, but I have yet to see anyone provide documentation that his is the result of NEW rule making from the EPA. It may reflect increased pressure from EPA concerning racing, hence the effort of the last few years to pass the RPM Act (which I too have signed many times, and encouraged others to do so as well).

As far as I can see, there is nothing new here. Emissions certified (CARB approved) headers (shorties with A.I.R. tubes in the 3rd gen. F-bodies case) are still available. Only the non-compliant long tubes for true duals are gone. That's a business choice on the manufacturers part as far as I can tell. Seems to have kicked off with Holley, as part of an overall trimming of their products, including layoffs of staff, which is something a LOT of businesses are doing in preparation for an expected recession.

It would be the same with post-'74 B-bodies. The long tubes I could get for say my '77 Cordoba, were never emissions approved parts as far as I know. Could they be tested and certified? Sure. But that would be a HUGE expense (extensive lab and road testing for each and ever model and engine/trans configuration) for an OLD catalog part #. Is there enough demand to ever justify that expense? No way. So they drop the part.

Has someone seen something more that I have missed (entirely possible)?

We have had to deal with all this over 20 years ago here in CommieFornia. I'm just amazed you guys got to go this long before anything happened. One of the reasons I part out 1976+ vehicles out here as the smog laws are too strict to make into affordable drivers. My 75' Trailduster is smog exempt, but if it was a 1976 model, I would have parted it out due to it being unmodifiable by state laws. e happy you got to go this long before they make you a compliant slave.

that
I would have to find it but one of the 1st was Boyd. He was using old car tittle on his new Boyd cars. But him on big trouble for tittle swaps and not meeting new car standards as they were new cars.
As,far as, kinda recent shows few years back the place doing diesel trucks was fined for emissions. Show called Diesel Brother's was
removing and modifying the trucks. Show made them a target for doing so. And also shipping modified stuff over state lines where not legal. Place im Utah says Sparks Motors on the gate.
I also don't see how Dave Kindig and others get away with pulling an old car or truck in the shop. Then new frame, supention, drive line, then say, ok body is shot and put new body or cab on but same car or truck.

The sad thing is as the Car enthusiast demographic ages out, politicians know that SEMA and other pro-hot rod organizations are rapidly losing political clout (which = Dotation dollars) meanwhile the green initiative lobbyies are almost fully backed by both sides of the political Aisle.

It may only get worse, particularly with states Like California and Colorado driving more and more restrictive agendas.

The logic of the 25 year exemption (in NC cars over 30 or 35 years no longer require inspections) was that as new cars come into the market by the millions each year, the number of older vehicles proportionally reduce in terms of % of total cars on the road, and the ones that ARE still driving are likely owned by car enthusiasts that have a vested interest in properly maintaining them and attrition very likely takes out a percentage of those remaining.

Therefore (logically) the problem (in terms of the overall) reduces to where it's not much of an overall problem at all.

But now it seems those collector/hobbiest cars are again very easy targets for someone or some politically motivated group who is looking for an obvious "scapegoat" that isn't in-line with the current political thinking.

I don't like the way things are trending I'm afraid it might only get worse for car enthusiasts...I 100% hope I'm wrong but I think it would be hard to argue with the logic of how I think it's trending.

Enjoy them while you can!

Just watched a show on Motor Trend last night where the guy bought a nice original Model A pickup really cheap. These Model A's used to be expensive, but the generation that fondly remembered that era of vehicles has passed away, so now there are more cars than there are interested buyers.

Our generation will go the same route, and the next generation will be into something different... probably hopped-up "clean" electric vehicles. Then the government will issue legislation limiting how often / much they can charge the batteries.

Vote for Freedom while we're here and realized everything in this life is fleeting! Our real treasure is what God offers after we leave this world for the next one!

I see the debate back and forth on this. I'm a younger guy and there's not much the automotive manufacturers build these days that interest me. Some have fun engines but, the styling leaves a lot to be desired or at subjectively on my behalf. Most vehicles I see driving around in this area are crossovers. It's rare that I see an old car out these days. It was refreshing to see a guy out enjoying his late 70s Trans Am. Shoot, it's rarity to see even a Challenger, Charger, or Mustang here with a Camaro or two sprinkled in.

We have never been very good at picking what will be really collectable and valuable in the future, have we? Otherwise, we wouldn't have destroyed all the cool muscle cars and motorcycles that we did. And I agree that some of our era cars will not stay particularly valuable. But then again, some will never be worth less.

But comparing the falling values of the Model As to the future values of real muscle cars is not a viable comparison. At least IMHO.

Saw the same show. Hoovie.
My best friend's dad was a Model a, and T builder and had many of them. Did so till he passed.
Was also a,WW2 vet.
All.the nice A and T cars were big bucks buy can be had for pennies on a dollar now.
But I think muscle cars cost will stay up there since things like over Drive Trans and modern amenities can be added easy to keep new younger guys happy.
The old As and Ts are a major pain to drive long distances at slow speeds of today's world. So limited market that brings sales prices down

summit still shows long tube headers for all gm models, 95 camaro . Summit, hooker, procomp, hedman etc.
At least here in Texas.
I have seen literally no changes in parts made/sold due to epa vs rpm act etc.
many are in stock, which is a big shock, others are on back order till may, march etc- as is normal these days.
Parts supplies are going to get tighter /longer wait times for at least the next 12- 18 months just due to supply chain difficulties in bulk raw materials.
fwiw- hope it helps.
Might want to try looking at texas summit stores- again, we havre not been told even once that later model parts are not available due to epa and we are back up close to 80k a year on parts purchases , about a third of those are 80's-90's and newer, well, maybe a third, have not really run the numbers by years of manufacture .
The point is- we arent seeing those issues here - has not affected us. Just purchased intake, carb, headers etc for a 78 Ford fore customer car- again, no issues.
95 camaro, headers, intake, carb, cam , rockers, shifter etc, etc- no issues.
Perhaps this will be of some help to someone.
Blessings all.

What happened to the parts coming with a tag that read

"for off highway use only"

Wouldn't that circumvent this mess